Are we talking about normal Republicans here, or these batshit crazy neoconservative Republicans? The fact of the matter is that the US has been poking Russia with a stick quite a lot since the end of the Cold War, and especially since Bush came to power - abrogating the nonproliferation treaty, negotiating with Poland for placement of their idiot "missile defense" shield, pushing hard for NATO membership for former Warsaw Pact countries within Russia's existing sphere of influence, even over Europe's objections.

I would agree that they see increased Russian influence as a bad thing. And you are half correct in asserting that they "don't want to see a return to the Cold War." What they actually want to see is a Russia with zero influence outside of its borders. However, those of us living in the real world understand that this isn't going to happen, and the actions that they have taken have had the *effect* of moving us closer to something resembling the Cold War, even if that wasn't the intention.

I do however agree that they probably did not want this war. I don't think even the neocons are dumb enough to believe that Georgia could defeat Russia in any serious military conflict. I'm sure they're also none too happy about seeing their multibillion dollar military and political investment being methodically dismantled in the most humiliating way possible.

We know at least some of what the neocons wanted: They wanted Georgia and Ukraine to be part of NATO. The (entirely predictable) upshot of this conflict is that Europe will never, ever agree to let Georgia or Ukraine into NATO. So from that perspective it's a huge net loss for them.

The only explanations I've seen for why the Republicans would have wanted this war are:

1) They're a bunch of warmongering assholes.

2) To help John McCain.

And in my mind #1 is much more plausible than #2, but still not very plausible due to it being so blatantly obvious that Georgia was going to get its ass kicked.

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